The two would-be Girls Aloud girls: One Called the Shots and quit... the other was fired... so how do they feel now?

As far as missed opportunities go, turning down the chance of being in Girls Aloud - and losing out on a personal fortune of more than £5 million - must rank high.

Back in 2002, when she auditioned for ITV1's Popstars: The Rivals - the show that spawned Girls Aloud and put Cheryl Cole on the road to stardom - Nicola Ward was 19 and freshly graduated from the Brit school.

She beat 10,000 others to become a finalist on the show and was offered a place in the embryonic group. But she turned her back on prospective fame and fortune, claiming that the contract on offer was little short of exploitation - although she now admits that she pulled out under pressure from a jealous boyfriend.

If only: Nicola Ward, left, and Hazel Kaneswaran narrowly missed out on fame and fortune with the chart-topping group Girls Aloud

She was hurriedly replaced by another Nicola: 16-year-old Nicola Roberts, who had gone back to school after earlier being rejected from the show.

Eight years, 20 top ten hits and six platinum albums later, she is second only to Cheryl Cole as a Girls Aloud fashion icon and is said to have earned more than £5 million.

Today, Nicola Ward, now 27, is an office manager for a recruitment agency in Bromley, Kent, and is trying to get back into pop through her appearances in Five's Sunday night talent show Don't Stop Believing.

Another might - have - been was Hazel Kaneswaran, whose place was eventually taken by Kimberley Walsh. Hazel was heavily pregnant when she made it into the final ten.

The five who hit the big time

Eight years since they won the reality TV show Popstars: The Rivals, Girls Aloud have defied the predictions that they would be one-hit wonders and have massively outstripped other girl bands. Here's a recap of how they made it...

NICOLA ROBERTS, 24, was just 16 and still at school in Runcorn, Cheshire, when she joined the band. In the early days she was criticised for her drab appearance, but has since become one of the most fashion-conscious of the group. In 2008, she launched Dainty Doll, a cosmetic range for pale-complexioned women.

KIMBERLEY WALSH, 28, from Bradford, was about to embark on her third year at university when she joined Girls Aloud. She is the face and body of New Look, and co-presented the Baftas for MTV.

SARAH HARDING, 28, has earned a reputation as a party girl. She played a rock chick in St Trinian's 2, and modelled for underwear brand Ultimo, for a reported salary of £100,000.

NADINE COYLE, 25, lives in Los Angeles, where she has made £;2.7m from property and an Irish bar she owns. Although it is said she has been unsure whether she wants to return after the group's two-year break in 2011, they have all signed a new three-album deal.

CHERYL COLE, 27, is worth a reported £12 million. She has signed a &pound;1.2 million deal as an X Factor judge, she's made £500,000 for her L'Oreal ads and has had a number one album and single as a solo artist. For now, she can do no wrong.

A granny flat was set aside for her and her boyfriend, but a few days before she moved in the producers had a change of heart and she was sent home.

Hazel has subsequently become a mum of four and had three top ten hits in her native Ireland. She admits to twinges of regret at not making it into Girls Aloud.

Though currently she's celebrating another Kaneswaran making it to number one in the UK - her brother Siva is a member of pop band The Wanted.

For Nicola Ward, the route since Popstars has been troubled. At the time, she said she was leaving because under the contract she was being offered, she suspected her earnings would have been a pittance.

But she now says that her then fiance pressured her to decide between him or Girls Aloud. She chose him, believing that as she was so young, another chance would come along.

'I would have been shallow to have given up love for fame,' she said at the time. 'No job is worth giving up the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.'

The gap between what she became and what she might have been was put into stark contrast soon afterwards. She auditioned twice for Pop Idol 2, but was told by Simon Cowell that he didn't think she showed enough commitment, and nor did he see her as a future solo star

Taking his advice, she joined girl group Cookie in 2005, ironically supporting Girls Aloud on tour.

Girls Aloud went stratospheric, while Cookie, inevitably, crumbled. She joined another group, Cushh. And yes, Nicola's hopes were crushed when they folded, though they did have a number 29 hit.

'Obviously it was a great opportunity that I missed out on. At 19, I didn't realise how hard it was going to be to get into the industry or how big a chance it was at the time,' reflects a remarkably upbeat Nicola.

'I was ecstatic when I first got into the Popstars house for the final weeks of the show. Geri Halliwell came to my home to tell me the news, which was pretty cool.' She adds: 'I bonded with Nadine Coyle, who was to win through to the group, and another Popstars contestant, Javine Hylton, more than the others. They were really nice, down-to-earth girls. We didn't get up to much because we were confined to the house. We'd cook, sit in each other's rooms, read magazines, watch telly.

'I always remember Cheryl being downstairs in front of the TV, chatting around the coffee table having a cigarette. She did mingle, though she was always close with Kimberley.'

All the time Nicola was in the house, she was being bombarded with calls from her fiance. In a dramatic gesture, he left her £3,000 engagement ring outside the gate of the house because he was not allowed in to see her.

'I sat in the park with him talking about the whole thing and he was devastated. He was not handling it very well. I felt sad to be in the position that I was in and having to choose.

'He said it's either me or the group, you're going to have to make a decision because if you continue with this then I'm never going to see you and that's it between me and you, it's over. And at the time, that was quite an ultimatum.

'It wasn't one I really knew what to do about. I was very much in love with him and thought: "Oh well, there'll be another opportunity, I'll just go with it."

'He was good at manipulating me, saying there might be another opportunity and said there was a record company interested in me.

'So it gave me a bit of confidence there might have been someone else interested. But there wasn't, it was just talk.

'When I broke the news I was leaving, Sarah Harding cried. It wasn't that we were close, it was just such an emotional time and here was I getting my stuff and leaving. We had spent three weeks together and then when someone leaves, it shocks you a bit.

'It wasn't until I left that I thought, "Oh my God, what have I done." Then Girls Aloud were out at Christmas with a number one single.

'It was too embarrassing at the time to then turn around and say I really regret it. I was still in the relationship and you have to make your bed and lay in it.'

Rise to fame: Sarah, Cheryl, Kimberley, Nicole and Nadine have had major success as the girl band Girls Aloud

She stayed with her fiance for three years until she was in girl band Cushh.

'He preferred that I didn't go out with the girls in my group, that I stayed in with him. By then I had grown up. I wasn't that enamoured 18-year-old that met him. I realised this wasn't for me. I need to go out and spread my wings, not have anyone controlling me. The pattern was repeating itself and it had to be stopped. It was probably the best thing I did, leaving him.'

Hazel Kaneswaran was more hardheaded about entering the contest. 'I thought they would put me into the last 100 and use me for good TV and then let me go. I wasn't expecting ever to get in the last ten.'

She was heavily pregnant, though she was still expected to take part in dance routines. Hazel had already had success in Ireland with her band Dove and saw Popstars: The Rivals as a useful tool to raise her profile.

'I knew Louis Walsh really well. I'd suppoerted Boyzone and Westlife with my band. He said we're doing this, there's not much talent over here, in Ireland, why don't you try to do it. I knew it would be good for my profile if I wanted to do a solo career.

'I was put into the last ten and the show was due to go live the week I was due to have my first son, Oisin. Then the week before I had Oisin, they told me I was out. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.'

'You'd be a liar if you said you didn't
envy Girls Aloud, but I also have four kids and they don't have any
children, so I have big experiences as a mother that they don't have yet.'

She'd become friends with Kimberley Walsh, so was delighted to be replaced by her.

'Looking back, I had already done it with my band, but this was a new experience for all those girls, they were only starting off. I probably would have ended up being their mam and telling them what to do.'

A year after her son was born, she had her first top ten hit in Ireland, with two more to follow.

In 2005, she became a judge on You're A Star, Ireland's equivalent to X Factor.

'You'd be a liar if you said you didn't envy Girls Aloud, but I also have four kids and they don't have any children, so I have big experiences as a mother that they don't have yet.'

Hazel found her way into the headlines in Ireland in an unwelcome way. In 2005, she reported her then partner, model Brian Fallon, to the police after she found two packets of cocaine in a locker in their bedroom.

He was described by the judge at the subsequent trial as a violent bully. He was fined and given a suspended sentence. She had two sons with Fallon and is now married to property developer Martin Grogan, with whom she has two more sons.

Hazel plans to go back to work as a TV presenter and still works in the music industry writing for artists.

She says: 'Louis rang to see if I had any songs for X Factor duo Jedward, I sent him over a couple. He said: "You're the Diane Warren [a famous songwriter in Ireland], I need you."

'I've never been happier. I've had amazing experiences in my life and I'm only 33.'

Fresh-faced: Girls Aloud, one month after they formed the band after winning Popstars:The Rivals

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Girls Aloud came very close to having two different members in the group.